Welcome to the Mr. Local History Project
“A 501c3 Non-Profit Dedicated to Preserving and Promoting Jersey History with a Social Twist”
The Mr. Local History Project is about bringing New Jersey’s past into the present through the stories of real places, real people, and real communities. Focused especially on New Jersey history, the project celebrates local history in a way that feels personal, engaging, and relevant, not something locked away in textbooks, but history that lives where we live. As we head into 2026, the 250th anniversary of the United States, Mr. Local History is turning history into a shared experience. With a social twist, this is about connecting online and in the community, sharing memories, spotlighting hometown stories, and honoring New Jersey’s outsized role in America’s founding. It is history you can explore, share, and be part of together.
Today in America’s History (We Update Every Day)
- 1831: Four hundred Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.
- 1903: Black Saturday occurs, killing 12 in a stadium collapse in Philadelphia.
- 1974: President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.
- 2007: An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.
What Can You Do Today to Celebrate America’s 250th?
Our Readers’ Top 10 MLH Posts this Week
Latest Posts
Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club
Views: 339 Clover Hill Swimming ClubA Beloved Summer Retreat That Changed New Jersey History PREVIEW RELEASE: For those who subscribe to early releases of Mr Local History Research. Additional updates will be provided as we receive answers to our research…
Reggie’s Playland Farm: Forgotten Jazz Club That Became Millridge Swim Club in Millington, NJ
Views: 545 Our story begins as we were researching another story tied to swim clubs in New Jersey’s Basking Ridge area, and we were preparing a story about Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club. A fun story you can read later,…
Windsurfing On the Columbia River Gorge in the 80s
Views: 691 Before kiteboarding, before wing foiling, and before extreme sports filled television screens, there was windsurfing, and nowhere captured its spirit quite like the Columbia River Gorge. Throughout the 1980s, this remarkable corridor between Oregon and Washington became the…
Remembering the Columbia River Gorge’s Wind Ranch in the 80s
Views: 1,391 Ah, who remembers the Wind Ranch in Bingen, Washington? Just across the bridge from Hood River was a place, no, an iconic place, that remains now only in my memory. This post is more of a community plea…
The Missing Cemetery of the Basking Ridge Continental Army Hospital
Views: 204 For decades, visitors to Jockey Hollow believed they were standing beside the burial ground of Continental soldiers who died during the terrible winter of 1779–1780. However, archaeological investigations found no human remains, and the National Park Service now…
History Helps Realtors Sell Real Estate
Views: 4,130 Realtors’ History Guide to Selling Basking Ridge, Bernardsville, Bedminster and the Rest of the Somerset Hills, New Jersey It probably comes as no surprise that realtors have a fairly easy time selling homes in Bernards Township and the…
Homer’s The Odyssey & The Gods Told This Time By Christopher Nolan
Views: 457 At Mr. Local History, we believe history is at its best when it connects people. That’s why our motto is “History with a social twist.” Every place has a story, every family has a connection, and every generation…
A Tiny Roadside Cemetery in Basking Ridge
Views: 512 Isn’t it strange that you might drive by something 1,000s of times and never notice something….until you do. This is one of those stories. Just to the south of the former Millington quarry entrance on Stonehouse Road sits…
The Wedding Heard Round the Colonies: Lord Stirling, Washington & New Jersey’s Most Famous Revolutionary War Wedding
Views: 559 Commemorating the 247th Anniversary of the Wedding Heard ‘Round the ColoniesJuly 27, 1779 – July 27, 2026 July 27, 1779Basking Ridge’s Biggest Event – Kitty Stirling’s Wedding On July 27, 1779, the Revolutionary War was entering one of…
MLH Housing Development History Series
Views: 155 Every neighborhood, subdivision, shopping center, office park, and apartment complex has a story long before the first shovel ever touched the ground. The Development History Series explores how today’s communities came to be, tracing the land from its…
History of Housing Developments in Bernards Township
Views: 14,603 Bernards Township has a long history of being a sleepy rural town. Then, the US built the Lyons VA, and everything changed as the population grew. Then AT&T came to town in the 1970s, and everything AGAIN started…
MLH Loves To See The Public Engaged….. The Latest Comments
Very interesting article and information. It’s a shame that none of the historical remnants exists anymore. There should at least…
Extremely thorough explanation, appreciate the effort put into this.
I remember when Robbie Naish won the pro-am one year, and it was sponsored by Yamaha (88 or 89 maybe?).…
Facebook Post 2019 – BINGEN BART’S WIND REPORT – conversation #53, recorded in Bart’s Vervloet’s office. Columbia Gorge Wind &…
Thanks for writing. All of our magazines have been in a “digital-only” format since we started creating the online magazine…
I’ve spent some recent hours reading your Middlebrook and Morristown sections. I enjoyed them very much and would like to…
Meryl Streep indeed also lived in Madison, New Jersey on Valley Rd, as shown by the 1950 census, for apparently…
Good morning! On the Westfield lost businesses list there seem to be two missing 🙂 same building next to team…
Thanks for sharing this. I always pass that Cemetery and didn’t realize someone was actually buried there. I thought it…
Our Summer 2026 Magazine is HERE!
Full of great local Jersey History to keep you on the edge of your history seat.
Special Edition – America’s 250th The SEMI-QUIN-CENTENNIAL is HERE!
See our special digital magazine. Full of great local Jersey History.
We lived to the west in Homestead Village and the planes would take off right over our house. Saw many…